For many years, Marxism has not only informed community development but also offered the most resonant critiques of it. According to Marxism, the most fundamental critiques of community development are that, it is a method of controlling the working class and only use them when they are needed (Delanty and Turner, 2011). This paper will discuss Marxist ideas of alienation, revolution, mode of production and classic struggle. The paper will explore how these ideas have influenced community development. Marxism theory will also show how the working class has been exploited by the capitalist. Moreover, it will justify Marxists arguments that elimination of the capitalism and replacing it with socialism will be a remedy for the working class and the society in general.
First and foremost, Marxist’s theory of struggle focuses on how the working class is selling their labor to the capitalists who suppress their welfare. Marxists believed the only way to save the working class was to replace capitalism with socialism (Community Development Society 2005). Unlike capitalism, which promotes private property rights, the socialism promotes collective ownership of means of production. Socialism would lead to low-level communism where all classes are treated fairly.
Community development is the formation and adoption of a set of ongoing structures that enables the community to meet its own needs. Community development empowers the community to adopt structures that enables it fulfill its purpose. However, Marxist believes the society uses community development as the way of controlling the working class.
For instance, the government uses community empowerment programs, which create avenues for the capitalists to marginalize the poor working class. Eagleton (1976) notes that community development creates small benefits for the working class and therefore cannot remove capitalist society. Marxist believes the principle of capitalism is incorporated in community development and thus cannot control the working class.
Marxist believes that capitalism has completely distorted the views held by the working class and all others who surround them. This misleading view has made the working class become alienated from the production process. For instance, Marxist revealed the wage labor, which is a capitalist feature that is the most profound type of alienation. According to the theory, the working class has no right to what they produce. This act alienates the working class from the products they have produced.
Alienation leads to loss of power for the working class (Eagleton, 1976). However, Marxists argues that the society can overcome alienation by restoring the human relationship to the labor process. Moreover, alienation can also be removed by emphasizing on people working together and not just working for purposes of earning a living.
The Marxist theory defines mode of production as the means of production adopted by the society and the relationship of production between the capitalists and the working class (Giddens, 1971). Marxist assumes ownership mode of production has helped inform community development by enabling workers view how collective approaches are important to promoting unity in society’s structures.
Western Marxists also agree with Karl Marx’s views that, in order for the welfare of working class to improve; a complete overthrow of the capitalism must take place. In fact, western Marxists reclassified the capitalists boundaries by showing them property ownership superseded the ability to control the workforce and managerial authority (Eagleton, 1976). However, modern Marxists are restructuring the boundaries of the working classes by remunerating the classes with better salaries.
One of the important elements the Marxist theory advocated for is changing the welfare state of the society. Marxist argues that welfare state operates along the capitalism and more often governments use it as a tool for controlling the society. Marxists believes provision of social services by the government such as health care, housing and education, do not improve the welfare of the society. The government uses these social services as tools for enforcing social control. The welfare state is designed to help the interests of the capitalists through three main facets of income support. The first feature includes provision of allowances through taxation system; second include provision of a wide range of benefits such as superannuation (Gidddens, 1971). Finally, it is through provision of income-tested pensions through social security. It is through the provision of these services that the government favors the wealthy people and thus controls the working class.
Marxists theory believes community development workers act as instruments of control because they work for the social welfare system. This argument is what forms the basis for the Marxism’s resonant critique. The Marxist theory holds these different values on social work.
The first one is the progressive positive, which views social workers as agents who connect the capitalists and the working class through collective action. The second is the reproductive position, which views workers as promoters of the capitalist’s ideologies and agents of social control. Lastly, the contradictory position views workers as agents of control and capitalists undermine the rights of the working class (Löwith, K. 1993).
The belief that workers are the agents of control has been the most resonant critique for the Marxist theory. It is evident from the paper; the critique has shaped community development. It has made the society believe that, workers exist to assist the community, and that social reforms cannot take place if the community is not involved.
Works cited
- Community Development Society, 2005. Community development. Columbus, OH: Community Development Society.
- Delanty, G., & Turner, S. P. 2011. Routledge international handbook of contemporary social and political theory. London: Routledge.
- Eagleton, T. 1976. Marxism and literary criticism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Giddens, A. 1971. Capitalism and modern social theory: An analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber. Cambridge [U.K.: University Press.
- Löwith, K. 1993. Max Weber and Karl Marx. London: Routledge.
